P2P filesharing service Limewire has had a spanner thrown into the works after a federal judge in the US dismissed claims that the RIAA had illegally blocked Limewire’s attempts at creating a legitimate digital music service.

Last year, the RIAA sued Limewire for copyright infringement. Limewire responded with a counter-claim, accusing the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) of price fixing, hacking Limewire user accounts, promoting lies about Limewire being involved in child pornography rings and urging musicians not to deal with filesharing networks.

It was ruled this week that Limewire has no case. Representatives from Limewire were unable to prove that price fixing had directly affected the service.

Limewire’s claim that the RIAA had tried to get all filesharing services to sell up to iMesh, the only P2P music retailer approved by the RIAA, were thrown out after Limewire failed to support its claims — in spite of the federal judge finding that Limewire had been specifically harmed in this way.

The judge said, “In sum, LimeWire has failed to plead facts plausibly suggesting a ‘meeting of the minds’ among any of the [labels] to refuse ‘reasonable access’ to their hashes.”

Further claims by Limewire that the RIAA had attempted to create a “shared monopoly” were also thrown out on lack of evidence.

All Limewire claims were dismissed and the ruling cannot be appealed or overturned. Limewire had its chance and blew it. This is a major blow for the filesharing network and shows a lack of legal experience and preparation.

We can only hope that Limewire is able to bounce back after this ruling. The Internet needs Limewire.

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